The use of different wireless technologies in unlicensed radio bands is increasing. There are many devices like microwave ovens, cordless phones, Bluetooth devices etc. that operate in bands employed by wireless networks such as Wi-Fi. Some of these wireless technologies can disrupt communications for a wireless local area network (WLAN). Complicating the problem is that many interference devices can be intermittent in nature. For example, some interference devices may operate during specific times of the day while other devices may transmit periodically in burst mode.
One type of Dynamic Channel Selection Algorithm (DCSA) utilizes channel load information averaged over time. Due to averaging, such algorithms can underestimate and fail to account for burst transmission devices or periodically operating devices while performing channel planning.
Another type of DCSA uses reaction logic that dynamically moves nodes of a WLAN away from a channel when strong interference is detected. The nodes may be moved back to the channel after such interference disappears. Reaction algorithms can be problematic because of channels thrashing as devices appear and disappear on different channels. This can be disruptive to devices that are actively communicating on a WLAN because channel changes can be disruptive to voice calls, streaming data and/or file transfer activities or to any type of mission critical wireless devices such as medical devices, sensors, etc.